The Darkest Age

A world of magic and wonder, overrun by undead horror.

The townsfolk safe within the halls of Castle Sovereign, the heroes now turn their attention to the missing Blackguard, Ghost Moon. According to Red Vespers, the missing paladin was looking into a possible origin to the zombie plague several days ago and has not checked in since. The single, cryptic clue Ghost Moon left before he disappeared was “Find Colin Meridoc in the back room.” Whatever secrets Ghost Moon stumbled upon, if they were strong enough to make a Blackguard disappear, then they are dangerous secrets, indeed…

Trapped between the closed gates of the Royal Quarter and the throngs of undead within Dirt Town, the heroes needed a way to keep the townsfolk safe while they brought them to shelter.

From the shadows, hope emerged. Red Vespers, Paladin of the Blackguard, suggested traveling through the city sewers. A passage down there lead into the King’s Field within the Royal Quarter, and from there the peasants could find sanctum within Castle Sovereign. The only problem, of course, is the pack of wererats that have made the sewers their domain in the wake of the zombie apocalypse.

And so the townsfolk hastily erected barricades in the surrounding buildings of Dirt Town, and the adventurers headed into the sewers to clear a path to safety…

By order of the King, many of the refugees were to be escorted across the city to the Royal Quarter, where some would be housed within Castle Sovereign, and others fostered in the homes of the nobility.

The adventurers took as many townsfolk as they could protect and trudged across the zombie-invested streets of Dirt Town. Along the way, they were able to confirm rumors of a death cult operating in the city when they were ambushed by several of the fanatics.

Our heroes handidly defeated the cultists, only to be faced with an awful turn of events. Upon arriving at the gates of the Royal Quarter, the High Paladin of the Oathguard decreed that it would be “too dangerous to open the gates” and ordered the adventurers to bring the peasants back to the Magic Quarter. Having just barely survived the journey there, a journey back would be suicide. What would the party do?

The adventurers arrived in Sovereign City only to find that it was almost completely overrun by the undead. The survivors had fallen back to the Magic Quarter, which became the party’s base of operations for their next two quests: taking back the Merchants’ Quarter, and rescuing survivors from the overrun Laborers’ Quarter.

Liberating the Merchants’ Quarter was a harrowing task. The adventurers faced a veritble gauntlet of the undead, culminating in a battle with former-thives-guildmaster-turned zombie, the beholder Zizzurax. However, the adventurers prevailed, the monster was slain, and the survivors managed to make a foothold in the plagued quarter.

Moving on to Dirt Town, the adventurers kicked in doors, faced ambushes from foes living and undead, and managed to bring several families of survivors back to the safety and security of the Magic Quarter. Along the way, the adventurers faced Zizzurax’s “brother,” Izzizul, and defeated him, as well.

With the influx of new refugees to the Magic Quarter, the district was crowded and approaching its maximum capacity. The survivors would need a new place to stay…

Our saga began in the quiet halfling community of Sparrowridge. Once a peaceful, pleasant land, the zombie apocalypse has turned the village into a prison, the halflings trapped and terror all around them.

The heroes, who wandered into the village from across the land, led an effort to evacuate the halflings and, hopefully, bring them to a safer place. They headed south, along a long, winding road across rolling hills and tall grasslands, to the realm’s capitol, Sovereign City.